EDI session at the UK Catalysis Hub Winter Conference 2020. Careers in Science – routes to success no matter your background – Dr. Miriam O’Duill (Nottingham), Dr. Tanvir Hussain (Nottingham) & Dr. Nelson Dzade (Cardiff) speak about their experiences over their careers. Watch a recording of the talks below: Dr. Tanvir Hussain has been kind enough…
A brief presentation and opportunity to ask a leading scientific publisher about the process and benefits of academic publishing given by Stephen Soehnlen (World Scientific). Watch a recording of the talk below:
Each year, thousands of academic papers are published on catalyst design, while there are only around 300 commercial catalysts available currently. To a certain extent this is due to the traditional approach of catalyst design, which starts with identifying a useful candidate catalyst for the desired chemical transformation, then iteratively…
EAM Catalysed C-C and Beyond- Homogeneous cross-coupling reactions based on platinum group metals (PGMs), are widely used in organic synthesis due to their robustness and usefulness. However, their widespread use is limited due to their high cost, detrimental environmental impact upon extraction, and their relatively high toxicity, with subsequent stringent regulations…
We present a detailed study of the surface structure of sulfated zirconia and changes in the acid-base properties of this material upon sulfonation. By using periodic DFT approaches, we explored alternative configurations for sulfated zirconia after de dissociative adsorption of one and two H2SO4molecules, as well as of the putative…
Introduction A catalyst is, by definition, a substance that accelerates a reaction but is not consumed or changed. Whereas this is generally true when looking at the start and the end of the reaction, it might not be true during the reaction, since catalysts may change dynamically according to the…
Shale gas, an unconventional natural gas resource, offers an opportunity to access a relatively clean fossil fuel, and could potentially lead to energy independence for some countries [1]. Notably, the extraction of shale gas generates large volumes of produced water estimated to be in the range ~15 000 – 23…
The efficient and effective use of the world-leading synchrotron facilities for catalytic research is one of the major successes and driving force of the Catalysis Community, especially in the area of the use of X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and Neutron Scattering. However, the increasing fruitful collaborations are pushing the capacity…
Today, implementing the use of sustainable feedstocks is a vital driver across the chemicals’ manufacturing industries. The dehydration of bio-derived butanol to the corresponding n-butene and/or the di-n-butyl ether has been attracting great industrial interests for decades. Di-n-butyl ether (DnBE) has a variety of uses, for example, DnBE is a safer…
Polycarbonates are a promising class of potentially sustainable polymeric materials. Polycarbonates can be synthesized by ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP) reactions between epoxides and CO2, a renewable C1 synthon, or alternatively by ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of cyclic carbonates, which may in turn be prepared using CO2.1-3 Chemical recycling, in which polymers are…
